I'm having a hard time converting your temperatures and cut sizes in F and in inches... Silly Canadians with their metric system... oh wait, I'm Canadian... When will I ever make the switch?

Nice make! Just a note though; Aroma B (FD, Probat 222, etc...) as a starter needs more time to develop. There also isn't any stirring during this 30 minute wait? If so, then I would suggest aging this gouda a bit more than usual. But then again, Gouda is eaten at almost any phase of aging.

I've always wondered what differences a type of hot water wash would bring to a cheese. For instance, there are recipes (like this one) that drain and wash multiple times. Other recipes drain only once (1/3 volume) and gradually wash until desired temp is achieved.

I'm having a hard time converting your temperatures and cut sizes in F and in inches... Silly Canadians with their metric system...

Yeah, it so logical that Fahrenheit took a fairy random point that he called zero and his own body temperature (well, about) and called it 100.And that because of his idea that common people would not understand negative temperatures.... And it is silly to use two states of water that most people know (freezing point and cooking point) and call that zero and 100...

Nothing you can do about it. Cheese tends to be fond of cross dressing.

Lol...

I didn't mean to give the impression I was disappointed or trying to fix it. Not even trying to. I'm just glad I'm going to get a Munster one way or another. Sorry, that'd be a Gmunster...a washed curd lightly pressed Gouda with a unwashed rind and not smear ripened Munster personality. ;-)

It actually makes perfect sense now that I look back.

As I had no b. linens, I was doing the hand wash thing you mentioned for the intended Munster, but clearly the PR from the Stilton migrated over.

However, the l'il Gouda, having dried out enough (or so I thought), I put in a pretty much sealed container to prevent or at least reduce the cross contamination from the blue. Which appears to have providing a perfect 90-95% environment for the linens.

Frankly, I want my first real Gouda to come out of a Gouda mold so this is kinda working out okay.

As for the Munster, I've scrubbed back as much of the Blue that I can see, cutting too small holes where it penetrated a wee bit. And on Friday, I got an actual honest to goodness SR3 linens and have started a wash with that.

My Colby - about a week and a bit old now - seems to be developing a bit of B linens too. A red blush on one side and a familiar smell. We've had some coldish rainy days and it's been resting on a board that may very well have had last year's Munster's on it.

This is a rather pleasing development so I may very well encourage it along later with a bit of smearing with salt water. Probably recommended anyway as there also seems to be just a hint of mold as well, so if I could encourage the linens and discourage the mold, that would be ace

About a week ago, it collapsed in on itself. The linens turned the exterior a nice orangish shade, then about last Wednesday, the sides bulged and the wheel lost about a third of its height. Within three days it had the feel of a hot water bottle.

I actually had to cut a hole in the top and even then, the liquid cheese inside nearly escaped.

A shame, and strange! I've never had a gouda turn liquid, though I've had a couple Brie's do that quite impressively. Those must have been some powerful linens, and perhaps there was some excess moisture retained? The earlier pic's don't look like it was overly moist though, and I'm talking moist to the point where the cheese is collapsing down right from the start.

Anyway, others might have some ideas, but it sounds like the wild linens and the moulds turned your gouda into an epoisse (however it might be spelled).

If it's any comfort, I unwrapped and checked my Brie today and it's covered in wild blue moulds. I feared as much as blue moulds were getting at it around the time I wrapped it and we were off on a holiday, so I couldn't tend to it. However, it may still be ok under the rind. Will see.

- Jeff

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The wise do not always start out on the right path, but they do know when to change course.